2010 Hopefuls: Game We'll Miss Most of 2010 - Star Wars Saga Edition

This Hopeful category has a premise that I want to dismiss before I even discuss the our chosen game. Games don't have to die. Many people still play Original D&D, Warhammer 1st Edition, and Old World of Darkness games. There's no reason a company ceasing production of a game line means the devoted players have to stop playing the game. Of course the natural way of things when a game ends is that new players stop finding their way into the game. If the company was providing any support, that support being cut off can really kill any kind of regular play as well. And lastly, a game can be cut off before its full potential is realized. Promises made in the core book are never followed through on because they couldn't get approval to make just one more book.

Star Wars Saga Edition is one of my top 5 RPG lines of all time. Comprising of 14 books including several setting books, a book for each class, and even a book devoted to the Droids of Star Wars (arguably a class in its own right), the line is a complete game. Despite a couple of directions they could have taken for future releases including a setting book for the New Jedi Order era and possibly a book devouted to epic tier (levels 20+) play, the 14 books create a fairly complete collection of rules and options for any era of play.

Besides the completeness of the line, Saga Edition offered a premium product with every book released. Wizards went with a square-shape that stood out on the store shelf and adds a certain charm on your collection shelf. The books have personality and each one goes into great detail about their topic at hand. Rodney Thompson, lead designer of the game, took a very interesting approach as well. The core book is enough to run any game. However, if you want a military-themed game or an intrigue-themed game for example, pick the appropriate book and layer the appropriate rules over the core rules much like an expansion pack for a computer game. Want to keep things simple? Stick with the core and you're good to go. I love that level of customization in the game.

I probably have a soft spot for Saga Edition. It was the game that bridged us from fooling around with Dread to full-fledged crunchy role-playing. It's my first real introduction to d20, and, above all, I am just as much a Star Wars nerd as I am a Tolkien enthusiast. When we found out that Wizards dropped the Star Wars license as of May 2010, it was a surpise, but not a major disappointment. They promised they'd finish out the planned releases - the last two class books - and made good on it. It's an incredibly admirable thing that Wizards did and I have to imagine it paid off. We'll miss you Saga Edition, but at least now I know I can try to collect the rest of the line and have a complete game with all the options I could ever ask for.